For current information on the High 5s project please go to the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Programme page:

What is the High 5s Project?

The High 5s Project was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 to address continuing major concerns about patient safety around the world. The High 5s name derives from the Project's original intent to significantly reduce the frequency of 5 challenging patient safety problems in 5 countries over 5 years.

The Mission of the High 5s Project is to facilitate implementation and evaluation of standardized patient safety solutions within a global learning community to achieve measurable, significant and sustainable reductions in challenging patient safety problems.

The High 5s Project is a patient safety collaboration among a group of countries and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety in support of the WHO Patient Safety Programme.

The countries that initiated the High 5s Project were Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ministers of health and other leaders within these countries signed formal letters of support in 2007.
Today the list of participating countries is as follows: Australia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States of America.

The project is currently supported by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and is coordinated by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety which is led by The Joint Commission and Joint Commission International.

Scope of the High 5s

The major components of the High 5s Project include the development and implementation of problem-specific Standardized Operating Protocols (SOPs); creation of a comprehensive Impact Evaluation Strategy; collection of data, reporting and analysis; and the establishment of an electronic collaborative learning community.

The High 5s Project is designed to generate learning that will permit the continuous refinement and improvement of the SOPs, as well as assessment of the feasibility and success of implementing standardized approaches to specific patient safety problems across multiple countries and cultures. Achievement of the Project goals is providing valuable lessons and new knowledge to support the advancement of patient safety around the world.

Mission

The Mission of the High 5s Project is to facilitate implementation and evaluation of standardised patient safety solutions within a global learning community to achieve measurable, significant, and sustained reductions in highly important patient safety problems.

Standard Operating Protocols

Three SOPs have been developed to support the Project. These SOPs address:

Assuring Medication Accuracy at Transitions in Care

Performance of Correct Procedure at Correct Body Site

Managing Concentrated Injectable Medicines

Each SOP summarizes the problem, the strength of evidence that supports the solution, potential barriers to adoption, potential unintended consequences created by the solution, patient and family roles in the solution, and references and resources.